Sick Baby

We made it seven months in daycare (a pretty good run I think) before we got the first "come pick up your sick child" call this past week.  It came as no surprise to us, there had been a sign on the door to the infant room warning us that "a friend in the class had been diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease" and to be aware of the symptoms associated with this highly contagious virus.  It wiped out almost Kate's entire class, and I'm curious to hear if the three sole survivors came down with it over the weekend too.

Matt stayed home with her Thursday, when her fever was the highest and seemed to cause bouts of narcolepsy.  He kept texting me pictures of our sick baby falling asleep on the floor, too exhausted to go on.

A catnap mid-playing

A snooze mid-crawling

I was home with her yesterday, she was still feverish and cranky and the gross rash symptoms surfaced.  The good news is, while nasty looking, Kate doesn't seem all that bothered by the rash.  She slept A LOT yesterday, usually in my arms.

How I spent most of my day off, you know, when I wasn't obsessively sanitizing our whole house

I guess it's just another thing to check off the "you-know-you're-a-mom-when" list: you're stuck home on a beautiful day with a pathetic, helpless baby.  It was a hard day.  I wish Kate could tell me where or what hurts, and I wish I could explain to her that a virus has to run its course and I promise she'll feel better soon.  It is very frustrating and heart breaking as a Mom to see your child miserable and not be able to help.  I know this is the first of many sick days I will spend home from work consoling my child, and I'm thankful that Matt and I both work for companies that don't give us a hard time about taking an unscheduled day off.  I'm also thankful that we have a whole weekend to rest up and recover, the fever is 100% gone today, and Kate already seems more like her old self.  The rash should fade on its own in a few days.  Wash your hands often blog readers... cold, flu, and apparently hand, foot, and mouth disease season is here!